eFinancialCareers

With shrinking tech budgets and increasing global gloom, which investment banks should you send your CV to? Headhunters give us their views.

Aside from a study by recruiters Heidrick & Struggles, which suggests banks are trimming back IT staff by 5-20% globally, most of the rumours surrounding tech redundancies seem to be just that – rumours.

One manager in the tech division of a UK investment bank, who insisted on remaining anonymous, says: “I’ve heard bad things from colleagues, who have suggested that tech departments are cutting headcounts by 10%, even 20%.”

But should you find yourself out on your ear, are there any investment banks actually using the current climate to sweep up talent?

Headhunters again insisted on anonymity before revealing their answers, but one says: “Barclays Capital is by far the biggest recruiter at the moment. They’re looking for straight technologists, with Java, C# and C++, as well as business analysts and project managers, and they’re all very front office focused.”

Another recruiter agrees with this statement: “In comparison to last year, obviously no one is doing very much, but BarCap stand out as taking on a lot of people at the moment.”

Indeed, one glance at its website will show you that it’s keen to take on IT hires.

Stephen Grant, managing director of financial IT recruiters Cititec, adds: “If you want a brush strokes statement, then it’s the European banks that are hiring. Definitely not to the same extent as they were last year, but they’re still hiring. Whereas the American banks we haven’t really seen or heard from in a good few months.”

A conference of CIOs in the US held by Financial Insights at the end of February highlighted the increasing frustration faced by IT managers in securing funding to increase headcount. It was attended by AIG, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Liberty Mutual, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia.

But Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, two US banks which have posted bullish returns, have been upping IT spend. According to Goldman’s Q1 report, in the three months ending 29 February, it has spent $186m on communications and technology – a 24% rise on the same period last year. Lehman spent $302m during this time, up from $266m last year.

One recruiter reckons Goldman is steadily hiring. Another says: “Lehmans may go back on the boil after quite positive results, but it certainly hasn’t been this year.”

Bizarrely, one headhunter tells us that they’ve received a swell in mandates from UBS – one of the main casualties of the credit crunch: “Obviously, risk management is very high on the agenda for them, but I suspect it may just be window shopping. They’ve released a lot of roles, but haven’t appointed anyone yet.”